Winter wonderland

Outside the apartment right now is a white world. 20cm of snow has fallen in London in the last 24 hours, the heaviest snowfall since 1991.

The front of our apartment last night, after a few hours of very heavy snowfall

The view from the back of our apartment, the next morning

20cm may not be a big deal for you Canadians and Scandanavians, but when you're from a part of the world where the only proper snow you get to play in is on top of a very high volcano, it's a big deal indeed. I was a very happy camper - particularly since my work was closed and I got to spend much of the day wandering happily around the neighbourhood, admiring how everything familiar had gotten a coating of magic.

However, there was a very big down side to all the white stuff, as Lauren found out on her way to work.

Little did she know ...

This much snow is not only a big deal for me, it's also a big deal for this part of England - where the public transport system almost collapsed. No buses were running, much of the tube system was down and there were heavy delays on the trains. Lauren's journey to work took almost three times longer than normal.

One of the tube trains stalled at the station

While Lauren's train was stalled on the tracks outside the station, things began to get a bit tense. One man started hyperventilating. A woman decided she had had enough and tried to force the doors open so she could walk to work along the tracks - which could have been fatal. Eventually, after getting into a fight with another passenger who was trying to stop her, she smashed open a window trying to open another door. All the ruckus, of course, meant that the train was further delayed and tempers got even shorter.

The woman, who was kept inside the train, was arrested when she did get off.

I had a much better day, wandering around and taking a zillion photos. Some of the people were slogging grimly through it.

But not the kids. All the schools were closed so they were all out in their parkas and gumboots, throwing snowballs, tobogganing and, of course ...

Making snowmen!

I had a great day. Though I suspect after a couple more white days, with transport headaches and looming deadlines, the thrill will have gone!